09 February 2010

Playing games

Gordon Brown is braced for a Labour rebellion today against moves to scrap the first-past-the-post voting system....As many as 40 Labour MPs are understood to oppose strongly Mr Brown's belief that first-past-the-post should be replaced by the alternative vote (AV), under which candidates are ranked in order of preference.

Even if it were to go through before the election (which is a fairly big if), it would only lead to a referendum in October 2011 (provided an incoming Tory Government did not kill it off altogether). In any case, the introduction of AV would only have a marginal effect on the number of seats changing hands.

Furthermore, there is considerable doubt as to whether Gordon Brown cares about AV. Arguably, he is more interested in cosying up to the LibDems and making the Tories look obstructionist. Would he actually hold the proposed referendum? Chances are that we'll never know.